I delivered the kids to friends' houses this morning and then set off to Siena College for the inaugral meeting of the New York Capital Region Fair Trade Coalition. It was an interesting gathering - a mixture of retailers, advocates, not-for-profit representatives, educators, and volunteers. I think we'll mostly act as a support network for each other as we pursue the activities we're already engaged in, but we'll also find opportunities to work together, welcome others to join us and generally try to give fair trade a higher profile. It's exciting - this is the first regional (as opposed to single town-or-city-based) fair trade initiative in the USA, so we're blazing a bit of a trail here.
This afternoon I managed to get the Girl to a skating lesson. It doesn't seem at all the right time of year for ice-skating, but actually when it's 89F and humid out, a rink is quite a comfortable place to be. I sat in the bleachers and chatted to a "skate-mom" - she has three figure-skating daughters - and learnt with growing apprehension just how much time and money it's possible to spend if you really get into this sport. One of the daughters had just bought a new pair of skates that cost $1,200! And unlike a quality musical instrument or whatever, skates wear out... Yikes. Still, I think there's a way to go before we're aspiring to that sort of investment.
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